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POLITICO 44

Sensing a stronger opposition from the left than the right, the White House is pre-emptively casting Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan as a progressive whose confirmation would not change the balance of the court.

“Elena is clearly a legal progressive,” said Ron Klain, chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden who helped oversee the nomination process.

“I don’t think there is any mystery to the fact that she is more of the progressive mold than not,” Klain added during a briefing with reporters shortly after President Obama announced Kagan as his nominee Monday morning. Klain also described Kagan as “pragmatic” nominee with a “lawyer’s approach to legal questions.” “She’s obviously replacing Justice Stevens, who is also on the progressive side, so she will certainly not change the balance of the court in that way,” he said.

It’s a shift from the administration’s rollout of the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor a year ago, when the White House held endorsement events featuring members of law enforcement. “As you do your job, know that Judge Sotomayor has your back as well,” Biden reminded them. It’s also a departure from the Sotomayor fight, during which the administration fielded attacks from conservatives that the nominee would be an activist from the bench.

Instead, the White House is defending Kagan's scant paper trail as a result of never holding a judgeship, and it is trying to turn her atypical background into a plus. The administration has no principled objections to releasing documents from Kagan’s time in the Clinton White House or her work at the Justice Department, Klain said, and will “apply the same practices and principles that have been applied in the past.”

The White House is stressing that Kagan’s background offers “the best of both worlds." Klain said Obama reached out to more than a dozen members of both parties in Congress, many of whom, he said, “thought it would be good to have someone with a different sort of experience on the Supreme Court.”

“The consequence of that, of course, is that the person who comes without having been a judge will not have judicial opinions,” Klain added. “That said, she has scholarly writings. She has speeches. She has her track record in both public and private law practice, and I think there will be ample basis for people to get an understanding of the way she thinks, her talent for the law, her legal acumen and what she brings to the job.”

In the end, he said: “I think there will be a very complete picture of her when this process is complete.”

Readers' Comments (28)

Another LibaNazi progressive from Harvard & Chicago. Doesn't this seem like a cabal here? Betwen all the Harvard types like those on Wall Street, Fannie, Freddie, the courts, the banks, and government, doesn't it seem like a takeover of America by Harvard people?

Harvard used to be a great school but it has become so emeshed in LibaNazism that I wouldn't trust anyone or anything that comes from it. What ever happened to the WE THE PEOPLE? The Harvard types think they know better than us and have to tell us how to live our lives to their standards for us peons while they a life of their choosing.

I think we need to take back this country and government back from them. It would be nice to see a regular person get a SCOTUS nomination. Never happening with Obamao. Let the "smart" people who screwed everything up get even more control.

C'mon. Are you suggesting that Harvard professors, like Professor Gates, live in a bubble, and are completely out of tune with the real world? That they place their faux intellectualism ahead of common sense and decency? I cannot imagine a Harvard professor thinking that they know what is best for us yokels in fly-over land. Thank God for Harvard professors, as with out them, I would not know right from wrong, how to raise my children, what to drive, what to eat....... This nominee is a blessing for us all. Thank you President Obama. Thank you!!

C'mon. Are you suggesting that Harvard professors, like Professor Gates, live in a bubble, and are completely out of tune with the real world? That they place their faux intellectualism ahead of common sense and decency? I cannot imagine a Harvard professor thinking that they know what is best for us yokels in fly-over land. Thank God for Harvard professors, as with out them, I would not know right from wrong, how to raise my children, what to drive, what to eat....... This nominee is a blessing for us all. Thank you President Obama. Thank you!!

C'mon. Are you suggesting that Harvard professors, like Professor Gates, live in a bubble, and are completely out of tune with the real world? That they place their faux intellectualism ahead of common sense and decency? I cannot imagine a Harvard professor thinking that they know what is best for us yokels in fly-over land. Thank God for Harvard professors, as with out them, I would not know right from wrong, how to raise my children, what to drive, what to eat....... This nominee is a blessing for us all. Thank you President Obama. Thank you!!

Seems strange that in this day and age we don't already have a few judges (with real judicial experience) that we can call on and deserve the position. Oh! I get it. This is one of Obama's buddies from Chicago -- payback time.

Seems strange that in this day and age we don't already have a few judges (with real judicial experience) that we can call on and deserve the position. Oh! I get it. This is one of Obama's buddies from Chicago -- payback time.

Obama's decision to choose Kagan for a seat on the Supreme Court prompts the headline Obama feels the need to defend Kagan from the left.

Obama has many decisions to defend from the left:

1. Ignored previous Republican profligacy, crimes, misdemeanors ?(Effectively, allowing torture and rendition to stand as precedents for future Presidents and Vice-Presidents to use at their discretion)-

2. Supported a stingy stimulus that was a third tax breaks (Contributing to the current 9.9 % unemployment)-

3. Doubled-down, the accelerated the Bush bailouts (Effectively closing off any other options to address the recession) -

4. Escalated a meaningless and fruitless war ("Oops, they're not in Afghanistan anymore, they're in Pakistan!"-

Obama's decision to choose Kagan for a seat on the Supreme Court prompts the headline Obama feels the need to defend Kagan from the left.

Obama has many decisions to defend from the left:

1. Ignored previous Republican profligacy, crimes, misdemeanors ?(Effectively, allowing torture and rendition to stand as precedents for future Presidents and Vice-Presidents to use at their discretion)-

2. Supported a stingy stimulus that was a third tax breaks (Contributing to the current 9.9 % unemployment)-

3. Doubled-down, the accelerated the Bush bailouts (Effectively closing off any other options to address the recession) -

4. Escalated a meaningless and fruitless war ("Oops, they're not in Afghanistan anymore, they're in Pakistan!"-

Ron Klain, Chief of Staff to Joe Biden ( whatever that job is ) referring to Kagan said, " It would be good to have someone with a different sort of experience on the Supreme court ". Heh Ron. It would indeed be different to have someone on the Supreme Court with no courtroom or judicial experience. I imagine this pick is to placate the gays since Kagan was very vocal against not allowing gays to do their thing openly in the military. Its also clear this woman has some issues with the U.S. military since she didn't want them recruiting at Harvard. Bet if we were at war and her life was threatened, it would be okay for the military to come to her aid. Well, Obama , Kagan, and Napolitano have a lot in common. Their all under qualified for the very important positions they were nominated for.

Is the Constitution, as amended, the legally enforceable contract between our government and its people?

I say it is and it should remain so.

The key concept of our Founding was that the people could legally limit the powers of the government that rules them. We can do the history of government if you want, but trust me on this one. The limiting of government power to those powers granted by the people in a written contract is the heart and soul of what made America great. It was the central Idea that marked the greatest progress in the nature of civilization since Christianity introduced the then revolutionary concept that it is not ok to kill or even enslave strangers.

This is the heart of the issue. Does the granting document limit the powers of our government?

I GUESS WE ALL SHOULD SMOKE DOPE TO DUMB DOWN OURSELEVES SO WE CAN GET ON THE SAME THINKING LEVEL AS OUR POLITICIANS AND NEWS ORGANIZATIONS. I FIND NEWS ORGANIZATIONS AND THE POLITICIANS MUST THINK THE REGULAR GUY OUT HERE IS STUPIDE. THIS PICK IS SO FAR TOO THE LEFT IT MAKES ME LAUGH WHEN THE WORD (PRAGMATIC) IS USED TO DESCRIBE THIS NOMINEE.